And The Finalists For The 7th Wave of the IIeX Competition Are…

After several weeks of intense competition, with 13 firms competing in the 7th wave of the Insight Innovation Competition, 11,415 views and 1,637 votes the results are in and 6 finalists have decisively risen to the top of the list based on votes by you, the global market research community.

Please join me in congratulating all of the competitors and the finalists. Here they are:

One aspect of the crowdsourced voting model is the ability of competitors to activate their networks to help drive voting. I think that is a tool entrepreneurs need to know how to leverage, but we certainly realize some competitors may struggle with it. That is why the final judging is from a panel of impartial judges who score each on their overall business potential; it seems to balance things out. However, in some cases the Runner Ups have compelling ideas as well, and that is certainly true for this round. Take a look at them:

Even though they did not make it into the Finalist category, I suspect this will not be the last we hear of some of these companies.

What happens next:

For the finalists, they are going to present on stage in front of our panel of judges and the audience at IIeX in Atlanta in June. This is a no-lose proposition for them: past participating companies have seen their businesses accelerate due to their involvements in the Insight Innovation Competition, resulting in funding, partnerships, new clients, and global brand exposure. For the single winner they will get:

A check for $20,000.00 thanks to our generous sponsors Lowe’s Innovation lab, Gongos and Michigan State University MMR program.

Exposure to a large international audience of potential prospects, funding partners and investors, including the Ricoh Innovation Accelerator, Lowe’s Innovation Lab, and independent venture capitalists and angel investors

A free consultation provided by Gen2 Advisors to help the winner develop a growth and expansion strategy.

A “Hot Desk 60” membership for one year at the Center for Social Innovation’s newest facility in the iconic Starrett-Lehigh building in Manhattan, which includes 60 hours of coworking space and 3 hours of meeting room access per month

An invitation to present at the next Insight Innovation eXchange

An interview to be posted on the GreenBook Blog, viewed by 36,000+ industry professionals per month

An opportunity to work with successful senior leaders within the market research space

The Insight Innovation Competition is collaborating with the Lowe’s Innovation Lab to help competition entrants gain awareness within a broad consortium of global brands.

All participating companies will be vetted for inclusion in the Lowe’s Innovation Lab program. Selected participants will gain guaranteed organic funding through pilot programs with program partner companies, as well as access to acceleration resources for marketing, strategy, finance, and business development.

In addition, all companies will be vetted for inclusion in the Ricoh Innovation Accelerator, an investment and business accelerator program focused on developing new technology solutions that can be applied to a host of business issues, including marketing insights.

On June 16, 2014, as part of Insight Innovation eXchange North America 2014, the finalists will present their concepts to a panel of judges comprised of sponsors of the competition in a live event. Each presentation will last 10 minutes: 5 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for Q&A from the judges. The panel of judges will be moderated by Greg Heist, Vice President, Strategy & Innovation at Gongos, Inc.

Using a 10-point scale for each category, judges rate each presentation on:

Originality of concept

Presentation quality

Market potential

Scalability

Ease of Implementation

On June 18, 2014 we’ll reveal the scores. The highest final score wins. The winner takes home the pot and chooses which of the judges they would like to engage with afterwards as a mentor.

One of the above companies will join Decooda, Zappistore, Raw Data, RIWI, SocialGlimpz and SocialDecode as winners and can look forward to rapid acceleration of their business.

For the runner-ups (and the finalists who don’t win the next round too), the news is still good. All participating companies will be vetted for inclusion in the Ricoh Innovation Accelerator and Lowe’s Innovation Lab programs. Selected participants will gain guaranteed organic funding through pilot programs with program partner companies, as well as access to acceleration resources for marketing, strategy, finance, and business development. Many of the past finalists have gone on to great success as well:

We should give a big “Thank You!” to our sponsors and partners who have enabled the Competition to emerge as one of the leading innovation funnels in our industry. The combination of their time, energy, and financial support to fund the prize and the platform are what make this possible.

Congratulations to everyone who competed and good luck on the next steps for each of you!